Nazareth: a Morality inOne Act: by LaurenceHousman
Samuel French: Publisher
28-30 West Thirty-eighth Street: New York
LONDON
Samuel French, Ltd.
26 Southampton Street, Strand
Copyright, 1916
By LAURENCE HOUSMAN
CAUTION.—Amateurs and Professionals are hereby warned that“NAZARETH,” being fully protected under the copyright lawsof the United States, is subject to royalty, and any one presenting theplay without the consent of the author or his authorized agent, willbe liable to the penalties by law provided. Application for the rightto produce “NAZARETH” must be made to Samuel French,28-30 West 38th Street, New York City.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
[Pg 3]
NAZARETH.
PROLOGUE.
Since Love first looked on life with human eyes,
Twixt him and us time like a curtain lies.
Of all the years while He made life His own
With dear familiar touch—how little’s known!
The gospels of His Birth, the tale make plain
Then two years till He died and rose again,
Naught else remains to us of all, save when
He, at Jerusalem, with learned men
Was by His parents found, and taken thence
Back to far Nazareth. And by no sense
Of mortal mind from where they now lie hid
Can we recover the fair things He did,
Growing to man’s estate, that He might die
For man’s salvation; hidden there they lie,
The days which mounted up to Calvary.
Yet here on earth that lovely deed was done;
Love in man’s form took life from wind and sun,
Waked, slept, ate bread, and toiled, and without speed,
Patient, made test of each frail weak human need;
Found means on small frail feet men’s ways to go;
From mother tongue was taught man’s speech to know;
So, for man’s making, childhood, boyhood, youth,
Each he endowed in turn with deathless truth,
Himself the type and pattern for each stage
Of human growth. Oh! in what future age
Shall we who, seeking that lost Pattern, roam,
Find it again, and to that form come home?
[Pg 4] Ah, friends! this simple showing that ye see
Of Love at Nazaret
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